Technical Workshop — In-person or virtual (2 hr): Defend, Contain, Comply — Vulnerability Lifecycle Automation with Ansible Automation Platform
This workshop provides hands-on experience managing a complete vulnerability lifecycle — from CVE detection through automated containment to compliant container delivery — using Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform. Participants respond to a critical CVE alert on a production RHEL application server, using AAP Controller, Event-Driven Ansible (EDA), and integrations with Splunk (SIEM) and Open Policy Agent (OPA) to defend, patch, and prove compliance without manual intervention.
- Module 1 — DEFEND: Detect a critical CVE and automate containment when no patch exists
- Module 2 — CONTAIN: Apply a policy-gated patching workflow once an errata is published
- Module 3 — COMPLY: Validate compliance, apply CIS hardening, generate evidence, and deliver a hardened container
NOTE
Complete the modules in order — each builds on the previous one.
Workshop Resources
| Resource | Link |
|---|---|
| Workshop content and exercises | rhpds.github.io/zt-ans-defend-contain-comply |
| Follow-up assets | TO DO |
| Post-event survey | TO DO |
| Certain registration page & promotional email copy | TO DO |
| Presenter instructions and guide | TO DO |
| Certain event banners | TO DO |
Key themes
- Event-Driven Ansible for automated incident response
- Policy-as-Code with OPA for gated patching decisions
- Workflow orchestration with approval gates and compliance verification
- Secure supply chain delivery with Podman containerization and image scanning
- End-to-end audit trail from detection to remediation
Who is this workshop best for?
This workshop is intended for security and operations teams who need to automate vulnerability response, policy-gated remediation, and compliance hardening with Ansible Automation Platform. Attendees will work with Event-Driven Ansible, Open Policy Agent (OPA), Splunk, and Ansible Automation Platform workflows in a realistic CVE management scenario.
Target audience
- Platform engineers managing RHEL infrastructure at scale
- Security operations teams evaluating AAP for vulnerability response
- DevOps practitioners interested in policy-as-code for patching
- SysAdmins and IT Operations
- Anyone interested in Event-Driven Ansible for security automation
Attendee Prerequisites
- A basic understanding of working with Linux systems
- Familiarity with Ansible concepts such as playbooks, inventories, and job templates
- Attendees must bring/use a laptop with ADMIN rights and the ability to SSH to a lab environment hosted in a public cloud.
- Must bring/use a laptop with Chrome 73+, Firefox 60+, Edge 40+, or Safari 12+ installed.
There is no student prep work required prior to the workshop. It is recommended to complete the free Red Hat training course Ansible Basics: Automation Technical Overview.
Presentation Deck
- TO DO — Google Slides link for Red Hat employees
Lab provisioner
Labs are available via the Red Hat Demo Platform under the Defend, Contain, Comply catalog item.
Lab Index (Estimate total time ⏱️ 120-150 minutes)
| Activity | Link | Estimated Time |
|---|---|---|
| Workshop Overview | 📖 View Overview | ⏱️ 10 minutes |
| Slides: Introduction + Workshop Brief | TO DO | ⏱️ 10 minutes |
| Module 1: DEFEND — Detect and Contain | 🚀 Launch Exercise | ⏱️ 40 minutes |
| Slides: Brief for Module 2 | TO DO | ⏱️ 5 minutes |
| Module 2: CONTAIN — Policy-Gated Remediation | 🚀 Launch Exercise | ⏱️ 40 minutes |
| Slides: Brief for Module 3 | TO DO | ⏱️ 5 minutes |
| Module 3: COMPLY — Audit, Harden, Deliver | 🚀 Launch Exercise | ⏱️ 40 minutes |
| Conclusion | 📖 View Conclusion | ⏱️ 10 minutes |
Demos
Individual modules from this workshop can be used as standalone demos for vulnerability detection and containment, policy-gated patching, or compliance hardening scenarios.
Learning Resources
Documentation
Going Further
Additional collateral for security automation:
| Title | Link |
|---|---|
| Implementing Zero Trust with Ansible Automation Platform | Zero Trust workshop |
| Security automation collateral | TO DO |
Ansible Workshop
This is an official Ansible Workshop
This workshop is maintained by the Red Hat Ansible Technical Marketing Team. Please open an issues on Github
